DEVELOPMENT BUILD — NOT FOR PUBLIC USE. CONTRIBUTE ON GITHUB.
CURRENT LOCATION · Magyar Nemzeti Galéria
03 — ARTWORK
CSONTVÁRY KOSZTKA, Tivadar · 1907 →
PALETTE
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COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The way Csontváry saw nature, was summed up in "Baalbek" (1906). Although he was still interested in nature, he went new ways in art. After the exhibition in Paris in 1907, his pictures with cedars painted in Lebanon, which were full of symbols and visions, started a new period.
Trees are referred to in the mythology of almost all nations as symbols of fertility or those of knowledge. In the case of cedars, Csontváry did not only want to portray a motif of nature, but he connected his message to a well-known and universal symbol. Art historians and psychologists involved in the Csontváry-literature identified "The Lonely Cedar" with the lonely Csontváry, while the "Pilgrimage to Cedars in Lebanon", its counterpart, was identified with the artist celebrated by others and himself. The latter work may be a symbolic repetition of his early "Self-PortraitThe Roman portrait bust survived in the form of life-sized reliquaries of saints, but it was in 15th century Florence that the individual features and character of a contemporary sitter were accurately recorded by sculptors such as Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Mino da Fiesole and the Rossellino. A similar degree of realism occurs in 15th century tomb sculpture. The equestrian portrait, based on antique statues such as the Marcus Aurelius monument (Rome, Campidoglio), was revived in the 14th century. Two examples in fresco are Simone Martini's Guidoriccio (c. 1328; Siena, Palazzo Pubblico) and the posthumous portrait of Sir John Hawkwood (1436; Florence, Cathedral) by Uccello, which gives the illusion of a 3-dimensional statue seen from below. The Venetian Republic ordered imposing monuments from Donatello (1447; Gattarnelata, Padua) and Verrocchio (14799; Colleoni, Venice), whilst other statesmen ordered their own images to be erected in public places, directly relating themselves to the military heroes of ancient Rome. Another form of political portraiture derived from antiquity was the commemorative portrait medal designed by artists such as Pisanello. The carved or painted profile portrait became popular in the 1450s. The realism of the clear, flattened image, painted under the influence of Flemish examples by the Pollaiuolo brothers, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli, was superseded by the three-quarter and frontal portrait, psychologically more complex, such as Leonardo's enigmatic Mona Lisa (Paris, Louvre) with her momentary smile or Andrea del Sarto's arresting Portrait of a Man (London, National Gallery). The 16th century portrait became generalized, Lotto's Andrea Odoni (1527; Royal Collection) being an idealized concept of a collector rather than an individual. Group portraits, decorating whole rooms, include the narrative scenes of the Gonzaga court painted by Mantegna (completed 1474; Mantua, Palazzo Ducale) and the elaborate schemes commissioned by the Farnese family in Rome from Vasari (1546; Palazzo della Cancelleria) and Salviati (after 1553; Palazzo Farnese). Portraits were also incorporated into religious narratives, as in Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle painted for Giovanni Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella, Florence (1486-90)." but in this picture the artist symbolizes his own self in the cedar tree.The truth of the statement is supported by Csontváry's writings, he mentions the tree as a symbol of his own person.
The order, the composition and the colours of the picture are subordinated to a world full of symbols. The double trunks of the tree in the axis of the picture arrange and hold together events with their branches growing upwards in a sophisticated pattern. A celebration recalling ancient rituals takes place around them. The whole picture is interwoven by experiences with nature and the presence of "energies" in different shapes, which Csontváry thought to be important. The complicated symbols of the picture carry different contents, but they are "manifestations of Csontváry's magic concept of the world, and as such, visual realizations of symbols arising from the depth of the human soul" (Lajos Németh).
@online{wga-r7c9f2625014238,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Pilgrimage to the Cedars in Lebanon by CSONTVÁRY KOSZTKA, Tivadar},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-14},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/csontvry-kosztka-tivadar-r092983550e4035/pilgrimage-to-the-cedars-in-lebanon-r7c9f2625014238},
urldate = {2026-09-14},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-14. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.